the unravelling
by yuehling
Summary: this is how we fell apart. - team 7, sakura-centric.
1. part 1: naruto

**a/n: just a three shot that i built on over time that doesn't really fit anywhere. it's just exploring something that could've been. i also don't own naruto.**

the unravelling

part 1: naruto

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It's all the village could talk about.

Sakura ignores it as much as she can, as long as she can, before the rumours set her off on a mad, earth-shattering-body-breaking rampage that leads nowhere and ends nowhere.

(At least, that's what she wishes she could do. If only everything could be solved by a punch and a kick.)

Instead she walks a fine line, and in front of her lies an endless minefield that she can do nothing about but _avoid avoid avoid_. (One wrong move will end them all.)

It's maddening, how this has to be the one case that she cannot heal, cannot destroy, cannot do anything about but watch in futility as the illness swallows him whole, leaving nothing left for her.

 _How cruel_ , she wants to scream. _How unbearably selfish_.

He's gazing out the window when she enters the hospital room, cerulean eyes bright as ever but painfully _lost_. She is swift and silent and he doesn't acknowledge her presence. (It takes her a beat - two beats - to realise that it's not that he didn't acknowledge her, it's that he _couldn't_. And it breaks her heart just a little bit more, the total civilian-ness of him taking him further away from his long-gone dream.)

So she waits and waits, and when he turns, stiffening at the sight of her, a ninja, she holds back the tears.

But what happens next makes her release the hold on the floodgates.

"Hello. You remind me of spring. May I call you Sakura?"

Then she's bawling and it's ugly and he's panicking, because _oh god I'm so sorry never mind please don't cry what did I do wrong-_

"No." she chokes. " _You never did anything wrong."_

She walks out of the room and never visits again.

* * *

She's curled up by her bed, _hurting angry tired_ , when she gets told Naruto didn't make it. And suddenly the world tilts and lurches.

Her last words to him echo and reverberate, a haunting mantra. _You never did anything wrong you never did anything wrong you never did anything wrong._

And just like that it becomes her only comfort, and she holds onto it like she has nothing else.

* * *

It's a quiet, unnoticed funeral, because _everyone's forgotten about the hero who began to forget_ , but she's not angry or furious, or about to go shatter the earth, because she's done enough of that and she needs to stop being so _immature_ so as she buries Naruto she buries her heart too.

She smiles her last smile at the small tombstone, an insult compared to what he actually deserved, and walks away – because she, too, can be strong, and she will be strong (for _Naruto, for Sasuke, for team 7)._

For a change, Naruto goes down first - and Sakura briefly wonders if it was actually a blessing in disguise.

(Because more than anyone, Naruto deserved a blessing)


	2. part 2: sasuke

**a/n: it's been a while, i had the sudden urge to use a creative outlet and to push another chapter out for this three-shot. apologies in advance for the last chapter though, it's going to be a long while coming – i haven't even begun to figure out its logistics yet, and my life is only going to get busier from now… so thank you to anyone who has been and will continue to wait patiently, and again, i don't own naruto.**

the unravelling

part 2: sasuke

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How long had it been since she had seen spinning red eyes? (Its presence is almost a warm comfort compared to the warzone-home-warzone-konoha that she lives with.)

Only a day after Naruto is buried, _he_ comes back pleading innocence. At this, Sakura feels nothing but cold _cold_ anger at how he single-handedly wasted all their efforts to bring him back, at how he could become so _pitiful_ to achieve what he wants, but most importantly, that how _stupid_ and _untimely_ Uchiha Sasuke could be.

Because it's an execution. There is no point fighting, his crimes cannot be atoned and there is no Team 7 to make ends meet and save him. There is only Sakura.

There is still only Sakura on the date of the execution. He is brought to the podium, and he hangs limply like a dead doll – _helpless, hopeless, lifeless_ – and at the sight of him Sakura feels a familiar anger seep into her bones.

But anger does not suit her, someone she once knew whispers, so Sakura turns and walks away from the scene, because no matter how much she hates him, she cannot bear to see another one of her boys _go._

And it is only a whisper, but a whisper is all she needs, to hear him call out to her, withered and hopeless-

She looks back, meets his spinning red eyes, and that's when she makes her mistake.

How long had it been since she had seen spinning red eyes? Not long enough, it seems.

Of course. _Of course of course of course._ She should have _goddamn_ known _._

So long as Konoha stands Uchiha Sasuke will keep on fighting, killing and avenging. The man would like nothing more than to see it burn.

And she was just a pawn in his grand plans.

The sky spins faster and slows into a haunting orange that can only indicate one jutsu. It's like all of her nightmares came alive - taunting her, whispering her fears like a mantra-

 _God, she didn't think she'd hate anyone so much._

She was screaming again, screaming at _him._

 _Let me out of this hellhole Uchiha Sasuke you sick bastard I hate you so so much-_

Sakura.

 _So Naruto had to_ _ **die**_ _for you to come back huh? You really just needed that last obstacle gone-_

 _Sakura._

 _ **Shut. Up.**_ _What do I even have to do with this?! Get me the_ _ **hell**_ _out of here-_

The world shattered. Emerald eyes opened to a reality of destruction.

Sakura was panting, the _adrenaline fear_ _anger_ pumping through her veins.

Konoha was a warzone. In the distance she saw Sasuke fighting several ANBU at once, his katana streaked purple with lightning.

She had never moved so fast in her life. (Then again, she had never been filled with _so much hate_. _Now_ she understands what Sasuke lived with, all those years ago, but as always she is the last to get there.)

He must've been tired, or maybe he let her. At this point, Sakura didn't care anymore, because the satisfying punch she landed sent him flying back through stone and wall.

She would have charged after him had arms not pinned her back, and a hand with fluid application shut down her main chakra points.

Someone she once knew is screaming in her ear ( _Sakura Sakura stop stop stop_ )but she cannot hear them cannot see cannot think other than _kill that man._

She's screaming again, her own tears holding her voice like a vice, and everyone watches the great disciple of the Godaime fall apart for a team that never held together.

Sasuke looks up from the crater he was thrown into, and Sakura's eyes, bloodshot and green, meets his spinning red ones, and she hates how deceptively calming they are in this hole of a place.

 _If only you came sooner,_ she croaks hoarsely, _if you had come sooner, things could have been so, so different._

(Because they _did_ have a chance to rewrite the story, but Sasuke had already exchanged his pen for a sword.)


End file.
